Apple acknowledges the US "smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters"; sources: iPhone 15 sales will start around September 22 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple acknowledges the US “smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters”; sources: iPhone 15 sales will start around September 22  —  On the cusp of the iPhone 15 debut, Apple has finally admitted what has long been clear: The industry is facing a smartphone slowdown.

A profile of Clop, a Russian-speaking ransomware group responsible for the MOVEit hack and believed to be operating out of Russia and Ukraine (Misha Glenny/Financial Times)

Misha Glenny / Financial Times:
A profile of Clop, a Russian-speaking ransomware group responsible for the MOVEit hack and believed to be operating out of Russia and Ukraine  —  They hold global businesses to ransom and seem to act with impunity — but behind them lies a tangled geopolitical web

Some workers say on-demand home services startup Urban Company, which helped Indian women enter the gig economy, pushed them out for not meeting steep targets (Varsha Bansal/Wired)

Varsha Bansal / Wired:
Some workers say on-demand home services startup Urban Company, which helped Indian women enter the gig economy, pushed them out for not meeting steep targets  —  Home services platform Urban Company helped Indian women get into the gig economy.  Now they say it's setting impossible targets and then abandoning them.

Russian independent news outlet Meduza says Apple removed its flagship podcast from Apple Podcasts; source: Roskomnadzor asked Apple to remove the show (Meduza.io)

Meduza.io:
Russian independent news outlet Meduza says Apple removed its flagship podcast from Apple Podcasts; source: Roskomnadzor asked Apple to remove the show  —  Meduza has received a notice from Apple, informing our media that our flagship podcast “What Happened” has been removed from the Apple Podcasts streaming platform.

How Waymo and Cruise are struggling to win over San Francisco residents, showing the challenges they may face in expanding driverless cars across the US (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
How Waymo and Cruise are struggling to win over San Francisco residents, showing the challenges they may face in expanding driverless cars across the US  —  Alphabet's Waymo and General Motors' Cruise are struggling to win over San Francisco residents and officials, a major hurdle in their nationwide expansion.

Nansen: payouts to NFT creators fell 98% from a peak of $269M in January 2022 to $4.3M in July 2023, as OpenSea and Blur cut royalty rates amid a bear market (Sidhartha Shukla/Bloomberg)

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
Nansen: payouts to NFT creators fell 98% from a peak of $269M in January 2022 to $4.3M in July 2023, as OpenSea and Blur cut royalty rates amid a bear market  —  - Payouts to NFT content creators sank 98% from a peak in 2022  — Exchanges for NFTs chopped royalty rates amid a bear market

How members of the Community, a group of teenage SIM swappers who met on the forum OGUsers, stole millions in crypto in 2018 before turning on each other (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
How members of the Community, a group of teenage SIM swappers who met on the forum OGUsers, stole millions in crypto in 2018 before turning on each other  —  Michael Terpin lost a fortune to a phone “SIM swap.”  When he went to war to get it back, he found some surprising allies.

Some artists say AI tools have made them anxious about the YouTube thumbnail microeconomy's future; creators like MrBeast pay up to $10K for a video thumbnail (Nilesh Christopher/Rest of World)

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
Some artists say AI tools have made them anxious about the YouTube thumbnail microeconomy's future; creators like MrBeast pay up to $10K for a video thumbnail  —  Creators like MrBeast pay up to $10,000 for a single YouTube video thumbnail, but the rise of AI tools have some designers anxious about the microeconomy's future.

Infosys EVP and former HR head Richard Lobo has resigned

Richard Lobo, Executive Vice President and Senior Management Personnel at Infosys, has resigned from his position after a 22-year stint with the company. Lobo served as head of HR from 2015 to 2023 before being internally moved to a special team reporting directly to CEO Salil Parekh. His resignation comes weeks after the appointment of Sushanth Tharappan as head of human resources to replace Lobo. https://ift.tt/Z4iudKL

Qualcomm, NXP, Bosch, and Infineon form a new company in Germany to promote the open-source RISC-V chip architecture, initially targeting the auto industry (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Qualcomm, NXP, Bosch, and Infineon form a new company in Germany to promote the open-source RISC-V chip architecture, initially targeting the auto industry  —  Together with Nordic Semiconductor ASA and German firms Robert Bosch GmbH and Infineon Technologies AG, the semiconductor firms …

TikTok announces measures to comply with EU DSA, including making reporting illegal content easier for users and removing targeted ads for those aged 13 to 17 (Martin Coulter/Reuters)

Martin Coulter / Reuters:
TikTok announces measures to comply with EU DSA, including making reporting illegal content easier for users and removing targeted ads for those aged 13 to 17  —  Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has announced a raft of new features for European users aimed at improving compliance with incoming European Union regulations.

Apple, Samsung, and others freeze imports of laptops and tablets to India; sources say India's sudden import license rules caught the industry by surprise (Sankalp Phartiyal/Bloomberg)

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Apple, Samsung, and others freeze imports of laptops and tablets to India; sources say India's sudden import license rules caught the industry by surprise  —  - India surprised industry with new import license requirement  — Modi government seeks to promote domestic manufacturing

Poco M6 Pro 5G confirmed to feature Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC

Poco has announced that its upcoming phone, the Poco M6 Pro 5G, will be equipped with the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 SoC, using a 4nm process for improved performance. The phone is teased on Flipkart and set to launch in India on August 5. The phone's design has been revealed, featuring a 6.79-inch IPS LCD panel with a 90 Hz refresh rate and MIUI 14 based on Android 13. https://ift.tt/0Tei8Dv

Independence Day sale: Xiaomi offers deals and discounts on smartphones and other products

Xiaomi has announced an Independence Day sale from August 4 to 9, with hourly price drops on select products at 12 PM and 6 PM. The company's offers include deals and discounts on smartphones and AIoT gadgets. Xiaomi products may be purchased at discounted prices from the Mi Store app. Customers will also be able to get products at prices as low as Rs 77 daily at 4 PM. The sale will feature photo contests, with the winners receiving Xiaomi's latest flagship phone, the 13 Pro. https://ift.tt/UL6XImD

Background actors describe their worries over lack of control of their digital likenesses, which is one key issue in the SAG-AFTRA strike (Bobby Allyn/NPR)

Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Background actors describe their worries over lack of control of their digital likenesses, which is one key issue in the SAG-AFTRA strike  —  After four weeks of working as a background actor on the Disney+ series WandaVision during the pandemic, Alexandria Rubalcaba was told by the production crew to report to a tractor trailer.